Job Discussion Forums

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

The OP was about 'value' of higher ESL certification. If it was about professional 'value' well so be it, but I clearly couched my remark as addressing their $$ value.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 7:35 am Post subject:

Aside from an increase in payment, there is another 'dollar value' to having teaching certs, and especially having higher quals. This value may be hidden, compared to a higher salary offered by an employer in recognition of higher training, but it is no less real. Namely, with higher quals, such as the Delta, one can plan faster and more effectively for one's classes. One can even cram more classes in one's schedule than an untrained teacher could manage. All this increased efficiency also increases income.

Presumably this would be the case in China too, wouldn't it?

teachingld2004 · Joined: 17 Feb 2012 Posts: 389

It does not matter in China for the most part, what kind do piece of paper you have. It is the way that u use it that matters.

I have met people with all sorts of qualifications who do not use anything that they have learned.

But what these courses do, is that they open your eyes. You have to ignore the sentence" student will .....". Let me tell you, students don't.

What a teacher must do, is listen. A teacher must figure out what the best way there is to deal with the group they have at the time.

Granted we have a host of various trials, but we have to do the best.

A good teacher should never stop learning. A good teacher must try many things and not to rely on the text book.

We all have/had impossible students, and some times there just are classes we have where we just want to throw up our hands in frustration, or get down and our knees and pray for. ( pray for them to get better, pray we do not "kill them" , or pray for what ever)

Some of us must follow the schedule no matter what, and some of us can do what ever we want.

No matte what certificate you get, please do some research about that school. You may be throwing your money in the toilet.

CFTU-Beijing · Joined: 25 Jan 2013 Posts: 40

How bizarre - the original OP posted by Burke vanished (DELETED) yet people still are responding to it!

To be very clear to all our teaching colleagues, TEFL certificates are not now, nor ever were required to teach in China. I personally have been teaching in China since 2007 at universities, private schools and in a public high school and have never even been asked if I had one.

Screen Print No: ESLCAFE-18.9.23.13

johntpartee · Joined: 02 Mar 2010 Posts: 3258

When I applied for my current position, I submitted my TEFL certificate with my other documents. They asked me what it was.

BlueBlood · Joined: 31 Aug 2013 Posts: 261

I have said this before on this board: In terms of getting a job (again, NOT in terms of being the best ESL teacher one can be), I've yet to locate any evidence that real, in-class TEFL certificates are of any more value than the one being advertised for $149 U.S. about 3.5 inches from this post.

Then the next question is, Is the $149 certificate any less valuable that the "deluxe" $300 online certificate? I have my doubts. Serious doubts.

Although I've not decided, I'm likely not getting a TEFL certificate. I already have a master's degree and teaching experience. I'm applying for jobs that pay about $1,000/mo. That should suffice.

Other opinions/comments most welcome.

Denim-Maniac · Joined: 31 Jan 2012 Posts: 1238

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

If FT teaching was integrated with the other English teaching at a uni or vocational, I would see increasing value in having a higher cert.
Any involvement in planning or scoping the full task of improving spoken and written English, would call higher skills into play.
Fact is, we are ignored by and large by the Chinese teachers of English and there is no incentive to secure a higher ESL qual.
My comments are strictly related to the public sector, where having native speakers is a 'tick the box' exercise.

CFTU-Beijing · Joined: 25 Jan 2013 Posts: 40

BlueBlood · Joined: 31 Aug 2013 Posts: 261

Age 40-50 is "older?" Are you kidding me?

I could see, maybe, 60-70 being described as "older" (although many of my best professors in both college and grad school were in their 60's), but 40-50 is crazy talk.

Mind, I realize that description may not be your opinion but that of many FAO's. Although I hope that's not the case.

Can someone please explain why a kid out of college, or a guy in his late 20's or early 30's still trying to find himself would be preferred over a more experienced teacher or professional in China? I do not understand this.

Javelin of Radiance · Joined: 01 Jul 2009 Posts: 1187 Location: The West

Many jobs in ESL are not about qualifications, experience or results. They're about how much or how little someone can be hired for. Younger inexperienced people might be seen as easier to manipulate and BS than someone with some experience in the field.

CFTU-Beijing · Joined: 25 Jan 2013 Posts: 40

Javelin of Radiance · Joined: 01 Jul 2009 Posts: 1187 Location: The West

Age discrimination is not a problem in China. For ESL jobs they'll hire almost anyone between the ages of 22 and 60, which isn't far off the hiring practices anywhere else. And there are plenty of foreign ESL teachers working here today that are over 60, some of them posting on this very forum.

MozartFloyd · Joined: 12 Jul 2013 Posts: 66 Location: Guangdong, China

There's an Aussie woman teaching at my Uni who is 62.